Analyze the impact of any two of the following on the American Industrial worker

between 1865-1900

Government Action Labor Union

Immigration Technology Changes

During post-Reconstruction all the way to end of the Gilded Age, certain factors and
movements came about that affected and also involved the American industrial
worker during 1865-1900. The biggest would have to be the mass immigration of
Europeans to the US and labor unions during the Gilded Age. Immigration caused
problem for American workers because it caused them their jobs and income. Labor
unions came about because of living conditions, earnings, and working hours.
Although these weren’t the only causes of trouble for the American industrial
worker at this time, it was most impacted on this group as it meant two problems;
no jobs or no rights.

The Gilded Age was a period of economic and population growth, the term coined
by Mark Twain, was appeared as shiny and “gilded” on the outside but different
underneath. The first problem that affected the American worker as well as the US
was the great migration of southern and eastern Europeans. These groups were less
educated than the German and Irish immigrants of the 1840s and 1850s and lived
heavily in the cities, populating in slums. They took available jobs that angered the
American worker, especially White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who were in need of
money. This sparked a philosophy of nativism, in which fear was brought on to the
WASPs because of mass immigration integrating with the population and taking
their jobs. This occurred early with the “Know-nothings” who were against the
immigration of German and Irish immigrants.

One group of nativist protest was the migration of Chinese immigrants into the
United States. Beginning with the Burlingame Treaty in 1868 that established
friendly relations the U.S. and China, Chinese immigration was happily encouraged.
Many worked on the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, and
participating in the California Gold Rush. Chinese immigrants were working harder
and longer for less income, infuriating nativists. The Chinese Exclusion Act was
passed in 1882 that banned Chinese migration into the United States.

Along with immigration, labor unions were things American workers were heavily
involved in. Poor treatment of workers caused the creation of labor unions to seek
workers’ rights. The earliest form of a labor union was the Knights of Labor in 1869,
organizing workers from various jobs into a united union for better treatments.
While a good cause, there efforts were often with increased violence to accomplish
their goals. The Haymarket Square Bombing, a labor demonstration in which a
bomb had went off, putting the unions off as radicals, changed the view of
Americans on labor unions.

The mass immigration of European and Chinese workers increasingly agitated the
American workers who didn’t want these people to come over and take the jobs
they needed to manage. This forced on nativism that opposed the coming of
different races, culture, and religion into the United States. Groups opposed of
nativism emerged, labor unions like the Knights of Labor and WASP groups like the
KKK who attacked for their goals.